Tag: fertility life cycle

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Women Face Decision on Risks, Benefits of Hormone Therapy

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For women of a certain age, there comes a moment of truth. The moment arrives after sleepless nights, a lot of sweat and maybe even some tears.

Inevitably, though, virtually all women must make a decision: Can I endure the symptoms of menopause or should I undertake hormone replacement therapy?

Oddly enough, there is no single — or simple — answer for all women. Your best friend may have the same symptoms or none. The same goes for your sister, and even your mother’s experience is of no help because menopause is a highly personalized condition. Treatments also vary depending on the severity of the symptoms and the person — some need a single hormone, others combinations of two hormones. Other medications also can help, including birth control pills, anti-anxiety drugs and even natural remedies.

“We have to talk about it,” said Dr. Nigel Delahunty of Greer Ob/Gyn. “We inform them of all the potential risks and see what they need and want.”

Delahunty has been practicing medicine for 17 years, and during that time the way to help women get through their menopausal years — in terms of the use and popularity of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) — has changed dramatically.

“It has fluctuated over time,” said Dr. Margery Gass, executive director of The North American Menopause Society based in Cleveland. “But what has remained the same is that estrogen has been effective in treating symptoms for more than 30 years.”

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Physical Function Poorer After Menopause

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – As women go through menopause, they may see a decline in their ability to carry groceries, climb stairs and get other routine tasks done, a new study suggests.

Exactly why is not clear, though extra pounds and depression symptoms seemed to account for some of the link.

“There is something going on during menopause. There is definitely a connection between menopause and the physical limitations women perceive themselves as having,” said lead researcher Lisa Tseng, a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh.

According to Tseng, her findings suggest that the “physiological changes” of menopause play a role.

A woman’s body composition, for example, tends to change – with an increase in fat and decrease in muscle mass. And with the decline in estrogen levels, bone mass dips as well.

Men also lose muscle mass and strength as they age. But studies have found that women’s strength decline seems to speed up around menopause.

The bottom line for women is to stay physically active as they age, according to Dr. Timothy Church, who was not involved in the new study.

And that should include aerobic exercise and strength training to help hang on to your muscle mass, said Church, a researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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How Millennial Women and Their Eggs Can Have It All

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I’m sitting across the desk from my neurologist, Dr. Gayatri Devi, the Director of the New York Memory Services, a Clinical Associate Professor at New York University School of Medicine, President of the National Council on Women’s Health and author of The Calm Brain.

Me: Twenty years ago I was diagnosed as being infertile and underwent five years of infertility treatment. It was a physical and emotional roller coaster. Daily doctor visits. Blood tests and hormones that I never knew existed were injected into my body. Every month I would pray and hope to hear, “You’re pregnant.” Every month I spent thousands of dollars to get a ticket for this ride (insurance didn’t cover infertility treatment). I look back and realize it was like I was possessed. Or maybe it was more like I was in infertility jail – I couldn’t get out, not even for good behavior. My mantra was, “Just one more month.” I thought it was like other things in life that worked for me – try harder and I’ll succeed.
Dr. Devi: How old were you?

Me: 34-39 years old.

Dr. Devi: Were you ever pregnant?

Me: Yes, when I was in my 20s. I had a miscarriage.

Dr. Devi: You are not infertile. In your mid to late 30s, you were trying to get pregnant at a less than optimal time in a women’s reproductive cycle. The reality is that you could have been very fertile in your 20s. You could have had babies every year in your 20s. But in your mid to late 30s, you were trying to conceive when timing wasn’t on your side.

Then Dr. Devi said something that made me really think: “We use technology for everything else in life, why not embrace technology to give women child-bearing strategies and choices?” 

What does she mean by that? Freezing eggs when women are most fertile – in their 20s, not their 30s. According to the Reproductive Biology Associates: “Fertility in women is greatest when they are between 20 and 28 years of age. By the age of 35, a woman’s chance of conceiving per month is decreased by half. By age 45, the natural fertility rate per month is reduced to only 1%.”

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Moderate Drinking May Help Older Women’s Bones

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July 11, 2012 — Women who drink alcohol moderately may be doing their bones a favor, new research suggests.

“Moderate alcohol as a component of a healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and physical activity may lower the risk of osteoporosis,” researcher Urszula Iwaniec, PhD, associate professor at Oregon State University, tells WebMD.

The study is small, with only 40 women, she cautions, and the research needs to be repeated in larger groups to see if the findings hold up.

The women in the study averaged 1.4 drinks a day. More than 90% were wine drinkers, Iwaniec tells WebMD.

The study is published in the journal Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society.

Drinking and Bone Health: Study Details

In the past, other research has found a link between moderate drinking and bone health, as measured by bone density, Iwaniec says. However, it has not been shown definitely that alcohol itself helps the bones or that the benefit is due to other factors.

Her team evaluated healthy women who were in early menopause, not on hormone therapy, and drank only moderately. Their average age was 56 and they had no history of fractures related to osteoporosis.

Bones are constantly remodeling, with old bone being removed and replaced. Estrogen helps keep this bone remodeling process in good balance.

As women go through menopause and estrogen declines, they are at risk of decreased bone density and getting osteoporosis.

The researchers took blood samples at the study start and computed the levels of indicators of bone turnover.

Next, the researchers asked the women to abstain from all alcohol for two weeks and took blood samples again.

After two weeks, the rate of bone removal and replacement increased. “That means that bone turnover is increased, and increased bone turnover is an independent risk factor for fractures [in older women],” Iwaniec says.

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Menopause and Marketing, Do Women Need Freshening?

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Menopause should mean fewer trips to the feminine hygiene aisle, right?

Not if Kimberly-Clark has its way. The company is about to extend its Poise line of products for women of a certain age. Included: a lubricant for vaginal dryness, cooling towelettes and a roll-on gel for hot flashes, and panty “fresheners” and a “vaginal wash” for vaginal odor — all addressing what the company says are common problems in over-40 women. The line already includes panty liners for women with “light bladder leakage.”

The theme of the marketing campaign: “The Second Talk” — meaning a talk about menopause equivalent to the one young girls get about their periods.

“There’s not a lot of conversation happening about menopause,” a company official tells the Associated Press.

Never mind “Menopause the Musical” or the decade-long debate about hormone therapy for hot flashes. It’s probably true that women don’t do a lot of chatting about vaginal dryness (though lubricants, moisturizers and estrogen products have long been available for that problem). And those cooling towels sound harmless enough (though not as nice as having fewer hot flashes in the first place — something an encouraging new study suggests many women might do by losing weight).

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15 Top Medical Organizations Agree on Hormone Therapy Use; 10 Years Have Passed Since Women’s Health Initiative Raised Questions

ASRM News and Research

After 10 years of debate regarding the risks and benefits of hormone therapy, 15 top medical organizations have come together to issue a statement of agreement regarding the benefits of hormone therapy for symptomatic menopausal women.

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Hormone Therapy Undergoes 10-Year Review

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A systematic review of nine randomized, placebo-controlled trials published to assess the effectiveness of menopausal hormone therapy in the prevention of chronic conditions revealed: estrogen plus progestin and estrogen alone decreased risk for fractures but increased risk for stroke, thromboembolic events, gallbladder disease, and urinary incontinence; estrogen plus progestin increased risk for breast cancer and probable dementia; and estrogen alone decreased risk for breast cancer.

At one time, menopausal hormone therapy was routinely used by postmenopausal women to prevent cardiovascular disease, dementia, osteoporosis and other chronic conditions. However, once initial results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials emerged in 2002 indicating important adverse health effects of this treatment, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued recommendations against using hormone therapy to prevent chronic conditions for estrogen plus progestin in 2002, and for estrogen only in 2005.

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How to Find Reliable Menopause Information Online

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Seventy-two percent of women have not received any treatment for menopausal symptoms, according to recent study conducted by Lake Research Partners for the Endocrine Society.

Of those polled, 45 percent said they thought current available information was confusing and 41 percent weren’t sure what to trust.

There are over 10 million menopause websites, many with misinformation about menopause, treatment options, tests, and strategies.

How do we find reliable menopause information online so we can have a productive conversation with our health care providers?

Different types of information are provided by a variety of websites: unbiased sites from scientific organizations, commercial sites with medically reviewed content, hospital sites, online health news, blogs and communities.

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Menopausal women could ‘work out’ their hot flashes

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Menopausal women who exercise may experience fewer hot flashes in the 24 hours following physical activity, according to health researchers.

In general, women who are relatively inactive or are overweight or obese tend to have a risk of increased symptoms of perceived hot flashes, noted Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor of kinesiology at Penn State.

Perceived hot flashes do not always correspond to actual hot flashes. Most previous research analyzed only self-reported hot flashes. This is the first study known to the researchers to look at objective versus subjective hot flashes.

Elavsky and colleagues studied 92 menopausal women for 15 days. The women recruited for this study were different from many earlier menopause studies, said Elavsky. In the past, women in menopause studies were experiencing severe symptoms and seeking help. They were probably not representative of the general population.

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Drs. OZ and Roizen: Relieve menopausal symptoms

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Like the wildfires sweeping New Mexico, menopause can leave women feeling scorched and doused. Hot flashes, heart palpitations and brain fog can make daily life challenging.

Unfortunately, alarms about hormone therapy have scared many women away from a treatment that banishes symptoms. An update by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests estrogen, alone or taken with progesterone, increases the risk for stroke, blood clots, and gallbladder and urinary problems. While they DO admit the recommendations don’t apply to women thinking about HT for menopausal symptoms, or those who have had a hysterectomy before age 50, they make women hesitant to take advantage of the benefits…

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